Läßt sich das sonomorphologische Lymphknotenstaging bei Kopf-Hals-Karzinomen automatisieren?

OBJECTIVES B-scan ultrasound imaging is an obligatory examination of great clinical relevance in patients with head and neck cancer. The procedure, however, is dependent on an experienced examiner and thus requires higher personal resources than other examination techniques. In addition, its subjective character leads to possible deficits in reliability and objectivity. Established sonomorphologic criteria (echo-contour, echo-density, echo-structure, boundary) should therefore be matched to the findings of computer aided sonomorphometry. METHOD 200 sonographic images of the cervical region of patients with oral carcinoma were analysed semi- and fully automatically as well as interactively b…